The Planning Commission with the support of UN Development Programme has stated that almost 40 per cent of the Pakistani population is ‘multi-dimensionally poor’. The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute poverty that considers the nature and extent of deprivation using three dimensions; education, health and living standards instead of tracking poverty only based on consumption patterns. The index complements income based poverty using ten indicators: level of nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance, access to cooking fuel, level of sanitation, access to safe drinking water, access to electricity, access to flooring and ownership of assets.
Pakistani poverty is driven by the highest deprivations in education with a contribution of 42.8 per cent, followed by living standards of 31.5 per cent and health of 25.7 per cent. Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab are the least poor regions with multidimensional poverty levels at 25 per cent and 31 per cent respectively while Balochistan and FATA are the poorest regions in the country with more than seven out of ten people living in multidimensional poverty. Over the last decade, the biggest improvements in poverty levels are seen in Punjab and KP where multidimensional poverty fell by 18 per cent and 17 per cent respectively. Afghanistan has 66 per cent people living in multidimensional poverty, India’s MPI levels stand at 54 per cent, followed by Pakistan at 44 per cent and Bangladesh at 41 per cent.
